T0W3RS

There are many definitions for “ghosting.” That’s why I chose it as the title for this mixtape. Ghosting is kind of everything right now. Tomorrow on election day (crazy) people will attempt to cast “ghost votes.” As the temperature gets colder and colder, we’re starting to see the water vapor we breath (also this). That’s ghosting. Most importantly, however, in college, it can be incredibly difficult not to feel like a ghost. Dragging your tired feet from class to class in silence and getting lost in a mob of your talented peers. That is ghosting, and over the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of that–just going through the motions without truly experiencing them. It’s a problem, and this tape really isn’t the solution. Instead, it is a peek into a day in the life of a ghost.

I introduced T0W3RS the other with an On The iPod post featuring Derek Torres, the frontman of T0W3RS. The band is releasing an EP called Wyatt on October 23rd, but today Sunset brings you a preview of what’s to come with the exclusive premiere of the fourth track, “Ours,” off the 5-track EP. This track just makes my day. And you know what? That says a lot. I woke up early this morning, motivated to go on my second to last run before my half marathon, got to my car to drive to work, and found that my window had been smashed in. Nothing was taken, which is good and all, but it’s almost more of a frustration when I think that whoever did this was just taking a swing at the car for the fun of it. Fuck you, asshole. So yeah…the fact that this song makes it all feel okay is big. Maybe it’s because the chorus of the song says “off with their head/I wanna make them suffer as much as me,” or maybe it’s that glittering instrumental that the song kicks off with, or maybe it’s because this song just makes me feel fucking invicible. Whatever it is, I’m up in my own tower right now, listening to T0W3RS, laughing at the little people below who can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Welcome to the 7th On The iPod feature. This is one of my personal favorite features on Sunset. To refresh your memories, let’s recap what this feature entails. We are asking people, be they artists, listeners, or fans, what they would do if they were stranded on an island with an iPod that held only 10 songs. Which songs would they pick and why? This week we asked Derek Torres of T0W3RS, a band out of North Carolina that Sunset is predicting to be a game changer. There’s a high chance you haven’t heard their music yet, because frankly they’re quite new and haven’t really hit it big in the marketing/PR game yet, but soon enough you will realize what you’re missing. Hopefully that can happen today when you are introduced to the incredible taste of Derek Torres.

A sample song by T0W3RS: “Scout/”

Introductory words from Derek:

It is a fact that when I was 11 years old I really liked Limp Bizkit. Now, it goes without saying, I think they are one of the most god-awful things to come out of the early Millennium, but there was a time in my life when “Break Stuff” got the repeat treatment. If I could now go back to visit my 11-year-old self, I would slap him around, hand him an Iggy Pop record and say, “This is real! You dumb little shit!” I realize tastes always change, and mine has indeed in 14 years. What would my 39-year-old, time-traveling counterpart say to me now? “You really think you’re cool listening to Grimes, you dumb bastard!?” These songs I have chosen, with a few exceptions, are songs I truly love. These are the songs that, after 14 years together, I can still wake up next to and whisper, “Darling, We will be together forever.”

Hit the jump to read about and hear the entire playlist from Derek Torres of T0W3RS.